Tizi Ouzou

Province

Tizi Ouzou (Arabic تيزي وزو, DMG Tizi Wuzu; Kabyle Tizi Wezzu, literally "hill of gorse " ) is a city in Algeria between Bejaia and Algiers. It is the capital of the province and the seat of a university. The city has about 90,000 inhabitants and is the center of Kabylia and cultural center of the Berbers in Algeria.

The town was first founded by the Ottomans in 1858 then it was extended or foundation by French colonial troops. 1890 received the Tizi Ouzou, a rail link to Algiers, which contributed decisively to the development of Tizi Ouzou - as a regional center.

After the independence of Algeria from France (1962), Tizi- Ouzou is also developed into a center of resistance against the Berber enhanced Arabization of the country and also against rising Islamic fundamentalism. After the Berber writer Mouloud Mammeri was occupied on 10 March 1980 by the Government banned from performing at the university occurred in March a student strike, the more protests and a general strike followed, until in April after a hard procedure of state power to serious unrest came ( " Tizi Ouzou - spring " or " Berber spring" ). In spring 2001, the student and Berber activist Masinissa Guermah was arrested near Tizi Ouzou, and then came in police custody died. This again led to severe disturbances ( "Black Spring" ).